By commemorating the Children’s Day, specialists pointed out that there is not much to celebrate in terms of health, since vaccination coverage has plummeted so far in this government. They warned that this could cause deaths of minors from totally preventable diseases, a fact that would be “criminal.”
La Silla Rota reviewed the vaccination data from the Ministry of Health, which is still cut to 2020, which shows that in the first two years of the current administration, of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the application of vaccines decreased that are usually administered to minors during the first years of their life.
To put in context, in 2018 a total of 58 million 654 thousand 604 doses of more than 10 types of vaccines were applied, for 2019 the figure decreased to 50 million 498 thousand 975 and in 2020 Mexico reached its greatest drop, since only administered 43 million 268 thousand 739 vaccines.
“Vaccination in general collapsed, that has been a very unfortunate phenomenon, but very constant, they stopped having an adequate supply of vaccines and stopped vaccinating children in general since the beginning of the new government, specifically since 2019”, he pointed Malachi Lopez Cervantes, academic of the Faculty of Medicine of the UNAM.
The specialist indicated that this is not the responsibility of the previous government, but of the current one, due to changes in the purchase of health supplies due to allegations of corruption; however, he explained that in the case of vaccines, this meant getting out of line to acquire them and regaining that place would be difficult.
Rafael Bojalil Parra, a researcher at the UAM-Xochimilco Department of Health Care, agreed, stressing that this drop in vaccination for children and adolescents is due to changes in acquisitions rather than the covid pandemic, since such a strong decline was observed in all countries.
He pointed out that the data from the World Health Organization, other countries such as Guatemala even increased their vaccination levels, as well as Colombia and Chile, on the contrary, Mexico and Brazil are the ones that show the greatest falls.
“It is not a general phenomenon, it is a broad phenomenon. It is not exclusive to Mexico, but given that other countries, and I am referring exclusively to Latin America, have managed to maintain their vaccination coverage, this implies that there are specific errors.
“In Mexico the impact is much greater because we were a national example, we had impressive coverage and suddenly a very important number of vaccines drops to 70 and so many percent, when we were above 90 percent,” he emphasized.
BCG, THE VACCINE WITH THE LOWEST COVERAGE IN 2020
The drop in vaccination coverage is different depending on the biological, but without a doubt the biggest drop was in the case of the BCG vaccine, which is administered to babies to protect them from tuberculosis.
La Silla Rota documented in 2020 the ordeal of families seeking this vaccine in health centers and clinics of various health institutions, but without success, which caused them to take their children to private services to get it.
The data from the Ministry of Health shows the dramatic drop, since in 2020 it is indicated that 72 thousand 016 doses were applied, 95% less than those administered in 2018, which were 1 million 387 thousand 388 doses, and 92% less than in 2019, when 930 thousand 482 were applied.
The WHO noted that BCG coverage in Mexico fell to 28% in 2020, while in 2019 it was 76% and in 2018 it was 96%.
López Cervantes emphasized that the case of the BCG vaccine “was a truly catastrophic fall that is accompanied not only by the drop in vaccination, but also in detection and treatment. So it is an explosive combination
The WHO shows that the vaccines with the lowest coverage in Mexico are some of those that are applied in the first months of life of girls and boys, such as the one that is applied against hepatitis B to newborns, which had a coverage of 42%. in 2020, the same as conjugate pneumococcus, with 49%, and rotavirus, with 46%.
Another example is that of the vaccine that protects children against poliomyelitis, which decreased from 10 million 365 thousand 180 doses applied in 2018 to 4 million 102 thousand 108, according to the registry of the Ministry of Health.
Although at a lower level, there was also a decrease in the application of pentavalent dpt, which is against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, poliomyelitis and infections caused by Haemophilus Influenzae type b, going from 6 million 213 thousand 724 doses applied in 2018 to 4 million 835 thousand 743 in 2020.
Regarding this vaccine, the WHO indicated that coverage of the first dose in Mexico is 87%, but drops to 83% in the case of the third booster dose.
The application of the human papillomavirus vaccine also fell in this administration, from 1 million 273 thousand 575 doses in 2018, to only 259 thousand 347 doses in 2020, according to data from the Ministry of Health.
“At least (vaccination coverage) has fallen in many of them 10 percentage points. In other words, we were already dragging low coverage at the end of the last six-year term, we were at 80-odd percent, but right now we are below 75 percent in many of them,” criticized Bojalil Parra.
“IF THERE ARE VACCINES, THE DEATH OF A CHILD IS NOT JUSTIFIED”
Mexico became one of the countries with the highest vaccination coverage at the international level, which is why health experts pointed out that the fall has to do with the government’s prioritization of resources and capacities to acquire and administer them, so the covid pandemic can be used as an excuse.
Bojalil Parra and López Cervantes warned that these problems in vaccination will change the epidemiological panorama, due to the possible resurgence of diseases that were already considered controlled or even eradicated, something like what happened in late 2019 and early 2020, when there was a small measles outbreak.
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“Vaccines around the world save millions of children’s lives each year, but even so, there are vaccine-preventable diseases that continue to kill children. If we do not recover our coverage, we will begin to see deaths from diseases totally preventable by a vaccine, which is totally criminal. If there are vaccines, not a single death from these diseases is justified,” emphasized the UAM-Xochimilco specialist.
Meanwhile, López Cervantes pointed out that raising vaccination coverage again means that previous supply levels are recovered, but the population is growing and more and more doses are needed, so to achieve this, political will and resources are needed.
“If we really wanted it and there were the resources, well, maybe in about 5 years we could be at similar levels, it is very risky to say it, but given the lack of resources and technical capacity, we still took ourselves to another government where we did not are so limited,” said the UNAM expert.
Both specialists highlighted the need for Mexico to recover its vaccine production capacity, since there is scientific capacity and trained personnel to do so, but the infrastructure that was destroyed in previous administrations is lacking.
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